My tracks don't sound "big", what am I doing wrong?

[Ataxia]

I make mainly house music, but I'm trying to get into producing dubstep. I know it's really important to have a good mix and have your track have "presence" but I can't seem to do it. My tracks sound flat. I try equalizing them but I really have no idea what I'm doing. I just screw around til it sounds ok but it doesn't make the track sound any better. I just need to know if there's any rules Of thumb about having a good mix. I don't know much about fighting frequencies or headroom, but I assume they're pretty important. Also, how do you prevent your bass from sounding warbled when playing in the lower octaves?
I can probably post a WIP if it helps you guys understand what I'm talking about, I'd just prefer constructive criticism, as I'm by no means a professional, and I just produce for fun.

[nnny]

Delays/reverb, and good usage of each helps to help a track sound big, atmospheres, pads, the list goes on! Drum processing is a big one for me. Its something I struggle with, but I feel helps immensly...
My tracks arn't "big" either, I'm still new to the game, just trying to lend a helping hand!

Good luck! Im sure someone will reply with better suggestions than me, failing that, theres loads of threads about on this if you search.

Peace

[lyons238]

there are no rules and it really depends on the sounds you use in your song. but generally

if you got a heavy bass then roll off the kick at like 60-80hz to give your sub bass room.

funtcase says he boosts his snares at about 200hz, cuts the hidden highs and lows

cuts 200hz from his mid range bass so the snares can be heard

really you just have to cut certain things in order to boost others. you cant have a cluster fuck of frequencies fighting with each other. boost wide and subtle, cut sharp. and roll off anything you dont need.

use visual eq's to help you and analyzers to see what frequency each of your sounds peak at and what frequency range they are generally in.

also use limiters to cut the peaks out of the mix so u have a bit more headroom, and compress certain things to also get some volume

a lot of a little reverb if that makes sense (a little bit of reverb on everything)

also stereo imaging and other things like phasing and panning can give your mix a fat sound.

im still a newb so take what i say with a grain of salt, but this is what i have learned.

[Ataxia]

Thanks for the swift reply. What do you mean by processing drums?

[nnny]

Thanks for the swift reply. What do you mean by processing drums?

EQ, compression etc

[Ldizzy]

search a thread about books one should read to get not-so-sucky at mixing...

read more then one... these are the type of things that will never be covered entirely in a single book... let alone a single thread (like this one :S)

seriously, read.

[ShadowMachine]

My tune doesnt sound big.......STOP using the midget patches!.... get the latest Paul Bunyan Sample packs and patches...

[Kes-Es]

You have to sacrifice a virgin.

[deamonds]

ure n9t using phat base setting, tut tut

[safeandsound]

Many factors create the "big".

Spectral content.
Transients.
Instrumentation.
Mix balance.
Stereo image.
Character of LF energy.
Good mastering.
Space in the track.

Some things to think about there.

cheers

[Kes-Es]

Many factors create the "big".

Sacrificed virgin.
Spectral content.
Transients.
Instrumentation.
Mix balance.
Stereo image.
Character of LF energy.
Good mastering.
Space in the track.
Alpacas.
HamVST.
Yoy Factor.
"Have you brickwalled your whole track yet?" Factor.
Level of bitcrushing cranked on master channel.


Some things to think about there.

cheers

Fix'd

[flatfaced]

you have to make your elements at female genders and let them lovin eachother and mashin their liquids,,,you dont need to have an instrument puttin sum freqs in other instrument...

also be sure each one of them is not so fat cuz it wont be pleasent for the eye/ear - all of them should form something huge,,,

like voltron or smthn

am tryn to achieve it right now and maybe its the hardest part

[Kochari]

Parallell compression & the moneyshot thread

[Ldizzy]

You have to sacrifice a virgin.

No no no and no.

i did that and then my drumz were phatter. but i still had problemes with the kick and bass conflicting...

cosign on the moneyshot thread !!!

[Skratch]

One thing that obviously really helps is to fill the "empty space" where ever you may have a bit of a silence in your tracks, add something like a siren and pan it hard left, or beeps or crashes, even a whole new synth. Like others said there are countless ways to make your tunes sound fat, you just got to experiment with delays and different effects and keep whatever sounds good to you.

[Ldizzy]

One thing that obviously really helps is to fill the "empty space" where ever you may have a bit of a silence in your tracks, add something like a siren and pan it hard left, or beeps or crashes, even a whole new synth. Like others said there are countless ways to make your tunes sound fat, you just got to experiment with delays and different effects and keep whatever sounds good to you.

darn i feel like im contradicting everybody these days...

but i dunnow mang... u have a point, but i cant help but to add something... while filling silences may make the song PHATTER, it alone, wont make it sound bigger... first, in terms of dynamic range / spectral balance, remember the more sounds u add, the less u can give space to each sound... some are gonna say, but in silence? well, percieved silence is never really silence if you produce with a certain amount of effects like putting echos and reverb...

but, and perhaps more importantly, silence ITSELF contributes to the impression of bigness.. when u hear a silence, and a hollow part in the song, then a full part... then u feel the drop as something even more gigantic... it gives contrast to your song... and its really more a matter of contrast if u ask me.. some aprts have to be full.. but silence helps u make them look even fuller... and since theres only that much u could add 'fore u fill up ur dynamic range... silence comes in handy..

some may say the new or not so new gaga/katy perry production style where everything is squashed to death and sounds ugly is big... and yes the engineers who achieve such fatness are good at that... but i think the more sparse productions always sound more grandiose ... the example that comes to my mind is Jack beat's remix of little secrets...



listen to the wobble... their songs always sound SO HUGE... and i think it has to do with the alternance of really packed drops and very sparse breaks with verb and delay ...

kinda comes back to that point about effects...

maybe im drifting... u tell me!

[Ldizzy]

oh and im amazed we didnt drop a thought or two about parallel compression.. search that as well... it kinda meets what skratch said just before me ahahahha but in a more ''micro'' way...

[legskeattch]

Its all about layer!

[Assassin]

Lrn2mix

[funtcase]

i dont think people saying he needs to image, compress, do frequency ratios, transients etc is really helping this dude out...start basically and work along to fit your style.

i can tell you about 3 - 4 of the listed things by that mastering dude, joker doesnt do in his tracks...its ALL about the right eq'ing and layers within the track to get the required energy and sound. good clarity at the top end so its clear, nice mids not too strong just enough to bring it out a little bit and just learn your sub volume limit, dont go too nuts with making everything loud just concentrate on layers and eqing them to make them sit together.

hope that helps

dont run before you can walk



oh and if you use cubase AVOID AVOID AVOID mastering machines...they can actually ruin a track horrifically if unused properly...and its lazy